Through the Past Darkly: Reflections on UFC 160

Remember how he looked when it was all over that night? When he stood there with a head that seemed to have doubled in size, trying to force a smile while fans booed him for, what, losing? Getting knocked silly in the first round and still going the distance anyway? Not being Cain Velasquez?

Whatever those boo-birds were thinking then, I hope they were watching on Saturday night. In his victory over Mark Hunt at UFC 160, dos Santos was everything we claim to want from our MMA heroes. He stood and banged, bro. He used the takedown just enough to make it a viable threat, but not so much that he was in any danger of challenging Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s mark. He took an obvious lead on the scorecards into the final round, yet still had the stones to try a spinning heel kick that he’d never pulled off in a fight before.

He went for the finish, even when he didn’t have to. He also knocked out one of the least knockout-able heavyweights in the UFC, and did it with the same pure, childlike enthusiasm that he had for this sport back before Velasquez put what seemed like a potentially career-altering beating on him.

In other words, he’s the same JDS he ever was, except maybe better. Hungrier, perhaps. More diverse in his attacks. Not so predictable. It’s like he squeezed all the good stuff out of his loss to Velasquez, but without letting any of the bad stick to him. That’s not easy to do. Especially so soon after the loss.

And Velasquez? He did what he was supposed to do, what we knew he would do. When you finish a guy off less than two minutes into the main event and it feels mainly like an I-told-you-so moment for the people who bet you up to a nearly 10-to-1 favorite in Vegas, it’s a sign that the situation was to blame.

In a rematch of a fight that was nowhere near competitive the first time around, Velasquez stopped Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva again, this time with greater ease and far less blood. While the first fight went on a little too long, this one might have been stopped just a tad too early. In both cases, the outcome was hardly in doubt. It was just a question of whether we’d take the express or the scenic route.

So now that Velasquez met expectations and dos Santos exceeded them it seems as if we’re headed for the first UFC heavyweight title trilogy since Tim Sylvia–Andrei Arlovski. The difference is, this one feels like something we really want to do, rather than just the best available option.

Thanks to one another, both Velasquez and dos Santos have gotten to ride the comeback train recently. Both now seem stronger because of it. It’s just a question of who’s strongest, and how long we’ll have to wait to find out.

Elsewhere on the UFC 160 fight card…

Grant continues to be the best-case scenario for a drop in weight

We see a lot of fighters in the UFC attempt to breathe some life back into their careers (or start completely new ones) by going up or down in weight. It usually doesn’t work the way they hope it will, probably because the weight is usually not the real issue in the first place. But then you look at T.J. Grant.

Grant was a mediocre welterweight who became a fantastic lightweight, and he did it pretty much immediately. Since dropping to 155 pounds in 2011, he’s won five straight. The really amazing part is, as the level of his competition has gone up his performances have only gotten more impressive. Win a decision over Carlo Prater, and the UFC brass will give you a polite little golf clap. Knock Gray Maynard out in the first round, they give you a bonus check and title shot.

Grant’s victory over Maynard might be the best thing that could happen to UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson right now. The Canadian brings a full head of steam and a growing reputation for exciting finishes into this title fight, and neither can be said of the champ these days. Grant seems like exactly the type of fighter who might force Henderson to do something different. Whether that something is fall down and go to sleep or actually finish a UFC fight inside the distance, we’ll have to wait and see.

Teixeira has the hype, now he needs a challenge

We’ve been hearing about how good Glover Teixeira is/could become for about a year now, but we still have yet to see him in a fight that helps us see it for ourselves. His quick submission over James Te Huna made that pairing seem like a mismatch, and his win over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson came when Jackson was already on a two-fight skid and eyeing an exit strategy.

Teixeira has a comfortable seat in the top ten, but what he needs in order to get a better one is a fight with someone higher up the food chain. Think of it in terms of rental cars. This is the point where Teixeira has to make it clear that he’ll only settle for Phil Davis or better. The young go-getters might have time to sit around and play the ‘whoever the UFC puts in front of me’ game. But Teixeira? He’ll be 34 this fall. Time to get moving.

Do you want to be a f—ing fighter?! Don’t answer just yet …

Cruising through our UFC 160 photo gallery this morning, I started to notice a theme. That theme was blood. Human carnage. Man’s inhumanity to man, and all that stuff.

Estevan Payan set the tone early when he poured his plasma all over the canvas in the very first fight of the night. At one point, with Jeremy Stephens latched onto his back, the two fighters sat in a growing pool of blood that had even UFC matchmaker Joe Silva wincing from the other side of the fence. If you came around the corner and saw that much blood on the sidewalk, you’d start looking around for a body. In a sport this inured to human suffering, we look around for someone with a mop.

The trend continued throughout the night. K.J. Noons and Donald Cerrone both left the cage looking like they’d been in a plane crash. Mark Hunt and Colton Smith both got up from their defeats on legs so rubbery they’d stand no chance of passing a field sobriety test. Mike Pyle merely had his wits knocked loose, though he regained them in time to look an NSAC official in the eye between rounds, claiming he felt “good” after being flattened by Rick Story. The tone in Pyle’s voice at the time? It was almost chipper. Like it was Monday morning and someone he didn’t particularly want to talk to had just asked him how his weekend was. “Good,” he said, resisting any urge to elaborate.

Only at Pyle’s job, the person asking him how he felt was trying to determine just how rattled his brain was at that very moment. Pyle said the thing that would make him go away. He had blood on his face when he said it. The man who asked the question did not see anything about that fact that seemed incongruous with Pyle’s answer to the question. That probably tells us something about this sport. Mostly it tells us that it’s no place for people who place too much importance on keeping their blood inside their bodies.

Pay-per-view prices, now with more commercial breaks

I understand that the UFC is a business, and that its owners have outside business interests they’d like to promote. Interests like online poker and Las Vegas tourism, just to name a couple. At the same time, if I’m already paying $55 to watch, haven’t they squeezed enough out of me for one night? Is it really necessary to take the advertiser integration crowbar and wedge in an interview with a poker player? And does he have to insult my intelligence by telling me how similar his card game of choice is to professional cage fighting?

The UFC has always been aggressive when it comes to sponsor shoutouts and product placement – how else did it get Cain Velasquez to shill way harder for Harley-Davidson than he ever has for Cain Velasquez? – but have some mercy on your paying customers. When I’m watching cable TV, I know there’s a trade-off involved. When I’m paying for the privilege, I could stand just a little more respect for my time and patronage.

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